Dem Rep: ObamaCare “not a government takeover … will reduce the federal deficit”

Ed MorrisseyPosted at 5:50 pm on October 31, 2010

Yes, it’s Betty McCollum again, providing yet another collective-groan moment from her debate ten days ago. This time, it’s not quite as absurd as claiming that “al-Qaeda no longer poses a threat to the United States,” but McCollum proves herself just as out of touch on domestic policy as on national security. She insists on defending ObamaCare in the debate with Teresa Collett, the Republican challenger in MN-04, making her one of the few Democrats to do so in competitive districts this year. Collett’s campaign put together this video demonstrating why the argument is not just a loser but flat-out wrong:

We’ve already seen a big Minnesota employer (3M) dump retirees out of its drug coverage, thanks to the cost increases under ObamaCare. Other insurers also stopped issuing child-only policies, thanks to the uncertainty over costs for the new must-issue mandate. And at least some employers are considering the cost savings of ending all employee coverage, which even the Democratic governor of Tennessee, Phil Bredesen, acknowledged as a likely outcome for ObamaCare.

As for the idea that ObamaCare will lower the deficit, Collett attacks that expertly with the follow-up “doc fix” that essentially rendered all Democratic arguments on red ink moot. But the real way to reduce the deficit is to cut the spending that Democrats increased by more than a third in three budget cycles, and to pass any kind of budget — two tasks at which McCollum and the Democrats have utterly failed, and will continue to fail if left in power. Hopefully, MN-04 will elect someone with common sense, or any kind of sense, on Tuesday.